TRP: Goro and Mishka (Sangria)
COYOTE Day 407. Mishka goes to find Goro at the end of the day. Once he was done talking to Hansel, Mishka went downstairs to make himself a drink. He made a sweet cocktail of wine and chopped fruit, mixed with a bit of fruit juice, and iced it. Then he added some vodka-- did vodka mix with wine? It was fine, it'd work out-- and he sipped it for a while. It was delicious. It needed more vodka. He added more vodka. He wondered if Goro would like some. Night fell, and Mishka frowned. Goro wasn't inside yet. Was he... still too frightened to come inside? Mishka wandered outside with his drink to see what Goro was doing. LINA Goro tensed up when he saw someone walking towards him. It was Mishka, though. That was good. Goro waved to him, tentatively. COYOTE Goro was hiding in the bushes again. Mishka stopped, puzzled and a bit buzzed, until Goro waved at him. Mishka sat on a stump, bundling himself a little deeper into his lavender sweater. "Sweetheart, what's wrong? Why are you outside?" LINA "Uh. Just wanted some fresh air." COYOTE "Hm," Mishka said, giving him a suspicious look. He sipped his vodka-flavored sangria. LINA Goro shrugged. He rested his chin on his knees. "Um," he began. COYOTE "D'you want some of this? It's amazing." He could make Goro one in the kitchen, which was inside the house, and get Goro to come with him that way. Mishka was very clever. LINA "Um. Actually," he tried again. COYOTE Mishka stopped, puzzled, and waited for Goro to finish. He finished his drink. LINA "I'm sorta thirsty. Do you have just... water?" COYOTE Mishka blinked. "Of course." He offered Goro a hand up out of the bushes. He thought, Goro could be infected with Diva. It could be in him right now, but he brushed that thought aside. It was frightening, certainly. He could imagine Goro being possessed and startling him. Getting the drop on him. Attacking him. But... it didn't matter, somehow. Mishka was willing to take that risk to give Goro a hand up out of the bushes. This was... more important, somehow. He wanted Goro to be safe. Inside. LINA Goro considered asking if Mishka would just... bring him some water, instead of making him go with him to get it. But, well, one of the things he was learning about himself was that even though he didn't have a clue what was going on, he wasn't fucking stupid. He could pick up on things pretty quick. And he knew everyone wished he'd just come inside, stop hiding in the garden. Reluctantly, he took Mishka's hand and got to his feet. COYOTE Goro showed a ripple of discomfort before he stood. It seemed clear he'd rather stay outside-- but, was begrudgingly coming inside for Mishka's sake, and everyone else's sake. "I could show you where to hide," Mishka offered. Then he decided to rephrase that. Be more direct and assertive. "I'm going to show you where your room is. Is that okay?" LINA "Um. Uh. Yeah." Goro didn't really think about it too much. Not like he had anything else to do. COYOTE Pleased and satisfied by Goro's presence, Mishka lapsed into companionable silence. Once they reached the kitchen inside, Mishka showed him briefly where the cups were by opening the cupboards and flashing the cups at him, then filling it with water from one of the jugs they kept inside. LINA "Oh. Thank you." Goro accepted the cup. "Thanks for... remembering I don't know where shit is, I guess. Must seem pretty weird." COYOTE "Weirder shit's happened to us. We almost started the apocalypse one time. Frankly, this is far less stressful. I'm just glad you're safe," Mishka said. "I mean... from your perspective this is the most stressful thing that's ever happened to you, but... ah. I'm just happy you're standing in the kitchen drinking water, not dying somewhere, not injured, not hurt." He immediately began fixing more sangria. If not for Goro, than himself. Morgan Wyn looked like she could use a drink, too. Maybe he could find her and start passing them out. LINA "Oh. Well. Thanks." He felt dumb saying it over and over again, but god. There was just... not much else to say. Except. "Uh, do you know, uh, when my husband's getting home?" Fuckin' weird. Gave him butterflies. COYOTE "Hansel?" Mishka sliced a mango rapidly with the knife, making satisfying noises against the wood. "He's home. He went to talk to Raef about... something that happened." He cast his eyes down and away. "Once you're settled, you should talk to him." Diva could be in you. Goro wouldn't know what it meant. There was no point in saying it. LINA "Oh." Goro swallowed. He hadn't realized Hansel was... around, now. "Um. Does he... did you tell him..." COYOTE "Aye. He knows." LINA "Oh." Goro's stomach did a flip. "Does he... wanna talk to me?" COYOTE Mishka finished with the mango, then wiped his hands. He rested his hand on Goro's hip, briefly, a familiar and reassuring gesture. "Aye." He met Goro's eyes steadily. "He wants to give you his full time and attention, so he's coming to you last." Hansel had not said so directly, but it was not difficult to infer. Hansel was like that. LINA Goro fidgeted with the hem of his sleeve. His eyes darted to the sliced mango, and he pointed to it. "Um. You mind if I have some of that?" COYOTE "Go for it," Mishka said, and popped half of it into his drink, then poured wine over it again. He left the other half for Goro. "How was talking to Luci? And Morgan, and Leigh, and Ombre, I suppose." LINA Bad. It was all fucking bad. Goro hated just about everything that had happened to him since he started forming memories. Everyone was being real nice, though, and he didn't wanna rag on 'em. He stuffed his mouth with the remaining mango pieces. "Fine." COYOTE Mishka started to smile, which he realized was inappropriate. He rubbed his face, trying to get rid of it. God damn it. LINA "What?" Goro said, mouth still full. "Do I... really love mango, or something?" His current feeling on it was that it was food, and that was the important thing. COYOTE "No. You just." Mishka rubbed his face harder. "You always say you're fine when you're fucked up about something," he said helplessly. "You're still the exact same person, aren't you? God, that's charming. I'm sorry. I like you a lot, and we're pals, and you're still the same person, and it's pleasing. That's all." He was pretty sure Goro would just think Mishka was making fun of him-- which Mishka wasn't-- so he buried himself in his wine glass. LINA "Oh. Really?" Goro snorted. He finished chewing and swallowed the mango. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Ah, maybe it'll be alright if... eh, whatever." COYOTE "What?" LINA Goro shrugged. "If you guys can't... fix me, or whatever. I'll still be the same person, just." He shrugged again. "Gotta relearn everything, but." COYOTE "Oh." Mishka blinked. "Is that bothering you?" LINA "Everything's bothering me," he admitted. COYOTE Mishka hopped up onto the counter and waited to see if Goro had more to say about it, sipping his new drink. LINA Goro finished off his cup of water and set it on the counter sheepishly. COYOTE "Am I bothering you?" Mishka said. LINA Goro looked at him, blinking in surprise. "What? No. No. Do I..." He glanced around the kitchen, like it might provide him answers. "Am I... oh." 'Cause he'd just fucking said everything was bothering him. "No. Nah. Everyone's been real nice. And I'm real grateful. I just..." He looked down at the floor. COYOTE “You’re just overwhelmed,” Mishka guessed. “And overstimulated. And you don’t know what to do.” He continued sipping the sangria, feeling a bit tipsy. “I can make you feel better.” LINA Goro wanted to say you don't know me but, well, he guessed that wasn't fuckin' true. "How you gonna make me feel better?" COYOTE Mishka popped a piece of mango in his mouth and chewed it. He resisted the urge to say, I can suck your dick, because he wasn't actually going to, and some people found jokes like that confusing. He had apparently deeply confused Morgan during Hansel and Goro's wedding. "I can show you around the castle," Mishka said. "So you know where everyone's rooms are, and so you know where to run if that snakes attacks you again. I can get you drunk. I can give you a hug and sleep with you on the couch by the fire. I can tell you jokes. I can flatter you. I can describe, in detail, how we're going to kill that snake, and how we're going to get your memories back." He began to juggle oranges from the counter. "I can juggle." LINA Goro crossed his arms and took a step back, glancing around the kitchen. "Um. Do I... like juggling, normally, or something?" COYOTE "I have no idea. I've never told you I could juggle before." LINA "Huh. So I know something old Goro don't know." COYOTE "I suppose," Mishka said, and continued juggling. LINA "You can, uh. You can stop, now. If you want." COYOTE "You can't tell me what to do. You're not Hansel," Mishka said, and continued juggling. LINA Goro scrunched up his nose. "Is Hansel your... boss? Is he -- fuck, are you like, his little brother? Am I your brother-in-law?" COYOTE Mishka dropped one of his oranges in surprise. He snatched it before it hit the ground, then returned all three oranges to the counter. “Ah, fuck. Well, Hansel is rather... bossy? Hm, maybe strong-minded is a better word. Anyway, I s’pose I forgot to tell you. I’m married to him too.” He suddenly felt intensely awkward about it. It seemed like... Goro used to be... jealous, and not want him there. He wondered if that was going to happen again. He just wanted to hang out with Goro and wanted Goro to like him. LINA "Huh?" COYOTE Mishka braced himself on the counter. He felt too uncomfortable to explain much. “Hansel and I are married.” LINA Goro winced, worried he'd got something completely fucking wrong, or... was just forgetting everything all over again now. "But... you did say... so he's married to both of us?" COYOTE Mishka hesitated. This was one of those moments where he wasn’t sure what to do with his body language. He thought that perhaps he ought to be honest and let his body language project discomfort, because he felt uncomfortable. Joan kept advising him to do that. Just express his regular emotions the way people typically expressed their emotions. But he also worried if he showed discomfort, Goro might pick up on it and misconstrue it. He might think that something was wrong, or that he was doing something wrong, or that there was a problem. So perhaps he ought to make himself look calm, and comfortable, to project that this situation was normal— which it was— and everything was fine— which it was. Mishka couldn’t decide. And it has been a long and tiring day, and he didn’t want to overthink this, and he didn’t want to make Goro sad. So he went with his first instinct and pretended to be comfortable. He made himself relax physically, twining his legs together and bumping them against the cabinet. “Aye, we’re both married to him,” Mishka said. “It’s common in some cultures for someone to have two or three spouses— particularly more progressive communities made up of multiple races where spouses often have widely differing lifespans.” LINA "So you're my husband-in-law," Goro said slowly. He felt fucking stupid, with Mishka having to explain to him how marriage worked, apparently. COYOTE “Aye.” Then he said, “I’m your friend,” because it felt like that was what mattered. LINA Goro nodded, satisfied. Or as satisfied as he was gonna get, anyway. "'Kay. Um." Mishka had offered him a bunch of things to try and make him feel better, but he wasn't sure he could remember them all. "Uh. Tell me a joke?" COYOTE “Well, drat. I can think of loads of jokes but none of them are good. Hm. What’d the ogre say to his wife when they got into a fight? This one’s terrible.” LINA "What?" COYOTE “Get ogre it,” Mishka said, and then took a generous gulp of sangria so he didn’t have to face the shame of looking Goro in the eye. LINA Goro snorted, grinning. "That fuckin' sucks." COYOTE “It does. It’s awful. D’you remember the Church of Helm at all? Anything left about them?” LINA "Uh." Goro scratched his head. "Someone told me I hated them. Morgan, I think. Yeah. She told me I had to go in there once to rescue Hansel's son. I think." COYOTE “Oh good. That’s all the background information you need for this joke. Anyhow, why do they bury clerics of Helm in graves ten feet deep?” LINA "Why?" COYOTE “Because they’re good people deep down.” LINA That one took Goro a second, but then he grinned and snickered. "Better." COYOTE Mishka hopped off the counter. “I oughta show you to your room.” LINA "Oh. Sure. Alright." Goro fiddled with his sleeve. "Is it, uh. Do we all share a room, or what? How's that work." COYOTE “Oh. We each have our own spaces. I’ll show you,” Mishka said. “We usually just sleep together in Hansel’s room, though.” LINA Goro nodded. He was pretty fuckin' sure he didn't wanna sleep with other people, but... felt rude to just blurt that out. He'd wait and see what happened. COYOTE Mishka began to wander off. “Your room is safe. Lots of locks. You’re welcome to join Hansel and I when you feel comfortable, though. I’m sleeping in his bed tonight. Things have been... upsetting, to say the least.” LINA Goro followed, not saying anything. Felt kinda guilty, but eh. COYOTE “Let me show you the castle,” Mishka said. And he headed upstairs to give the tour. LINA end TRP: Goro and Mishka (Sangria). Day 407. Mishka coaxes Goro inside and attempts to cheer him up with bad jokes. Category:Text Roleplay